Vader's Vault Unleashed! Sithstalker custom MHS based saber

[FenderBender]

Hello TFU Fans! :D

This saber has been on the bench for a while and we've been so anxious to finish it. It seems we are getting to scratch our Sith itch lately with the darkside sabers we are doing :D The customer who requested this saber is doing a Sithstalker armor costume for Celebration 5 next month and wanted THE most accurate Sithstalker saber he could get. Well, we were happy to take on the challenge and couldn't wait to get started. Unfortunately we had months of builds to do before we could :cry: When the time came around to start construction on this bad boy we scoured the internet for screen shots and found that there is an unsatisfactory amount out there :P So we downloaded the USE content for our TFU game and studied it in action, in HD. I actually had Luminara move the camera around in game while I sat right up at the TV and sketched the saber out in the different views and noted certain key design elements. One thing I noticed right away is that the game saber only has 3 claws. I had seen some versions out there with 4 and since our customer wanted the most accurate, we went with the 3 claw design. I machined the claws out of aluminum bar and cut slots in the custom emitter to mount them in. I left a raised ring on the top of the emitter then turned down the shroud material to match the O.D. of the ring. The shroud ears are hand cut. I needed the tolerances around the claws to be super tight so I did it by hand, and filed each slot until they cleared and fit each claw perfectly. The game shots show to black button looking things on one of the claw shrouds, and our customer wanted a lighted switch. Our normal anti vandal switches don't come in black, so we went with a different switch close in size that was black and lighted. He also requested that there be some accent LEDs on the hilt, but none are on the saber in the game, so I recessed 4 3mm LEDs in one of the shroud ears and placed the aux switch in line and mounted low pro as to blend in with the accents. The game saber also had a crude leather wrap on about 4 inches of the hilt. We found some glove quality leather scraps and cut a long strip from it and secured the starting side with one of the shroud screws then wrapped it around to cover the rest of the shroud screws then finished it off with a tie leaving a small tail like in the game shots and concept art.

Quick Specs:

Custom machined hilt with custom claws
Custom chassis
Glove leather wrap
Lighted main swith
Recessed accent LEDs and recessed aux switch
Hand cut shroud pieces
Plecter Labs Crystal Focus Sabercore v4.31
LEDengin 10W Red with Flash on Clash
Custom Li-Ion battery pack

Soundfonts: Madcow's Korriban, Novastar's TFU Starkiller, Madcow's Vader, Novastar's EPIII Sidious, Madcow's Maul, Novastar's Blackstar

Pics:

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/th_026-18.jpg (http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/?action=view&current=026-18.jpg)http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/th_027-20.jpg (http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/?action=view&current=027-20.jpg)http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/th_028-14.jpg (http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/?action=view&current=028-14.jpg)http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/th_029-22.jpg (http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/?action=view&current=029-22.jpg)http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/th_025-19.jpg (http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/?action=view&current=025-19.jpg)http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/th_024-24.jpg (http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/?action=view&current=024-24.jpg)http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/th_023-19.jpg (http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/?action=view&current=023-19.jpg)http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/th_016-33.jpg (http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/?action=view&current=016-33.jpg)http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/th_017-37.jpg (http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/?action=view&current=017-37.jpg)http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/th_013-26.jpg (http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/?action=view&current=013-26.jpg)http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/th_015-31.jpg (http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/?action=view&current=015-31.jpg)http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/th_038-11.jpg (http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/?action=view&current=038-11.jpg)http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/th_033-12.jpg (http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/?action=view&current=033-12.jpg)

The chassis (always forget to take pics of these ;)):

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/th_003-39.jpg (http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/?action=view&current=003-39.jpg)

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/th_005-30.jpg (http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/?action=view&current=005-30.jpg)
Rotating speaker mount for SD card access.

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/th_010-30.jpg (http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/?action=view&current=010-30.jpg)

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/th_010-30.jpg (http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q169/AJFenderBender/?action=view&current=010-30.jpg)
The "hydra" Slightly more complicated wiring than an MR board eh..... :rolleyes: :D

Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POvXG9Dzjvc

[Rhyen Skytracker]

Great saber and awesome job as usual. Keep inspiring us!

[ARKM]

Very cool Sith saber.

[PhoenixReborn]

Nice.

[JamoUp]

I love it. recessed accents look great. nice eye to the details!

[Sunrider]

That's one nasty lookin sithy saber. That looks scary just to wear yeeeoowwwch.:p

Great work.

[Obi-Ben]

Wow...that's...a lot of wires. I can't figure out where they all go to.

[FenderBender]

4 to the main LED (clash flash set up)
3 to the recharge port
3 to the main switch (lighted)
2 to the aux switch
5 to the accent LEDs

[Invisas1979]

Awesome saber fender. I love the sith stalker saber and this is excellent, you've done such a smashing job on this interpretation.

More Dark side sabers please, i've loved the last two.

[Skottsaber]

WOW!
I bet this saber is going to make Rafalema quite happy lol

I like the 3 claw design much better, the 4 claw makes it too square.
Nice work!

P.S- how the force did you forget TFU STARKILLER on the fonts? Surely thats going to be pretty obvious given the saber? :p

[cardcollector]

That's pretty a pretty "sharp" saber! I wouldn't want to use that for dueling though, I'd be afraid to bend the Fingers- I mean claws...

[jin starkiller]

really cool looking saber ...like the claws ...very sithy looking

[cannibal869]

impressive work as always!!!

[Crystal Chambers]

Even more impressive since we get to see what makes it tic.

[Darth Midian]

That is a work of art. Great job.